What does August bring??

Choke cherries are so so yummy

August 2012 is here and with it many memories come.  Some of them:

• Harvesting those itchy itchy grains like oats and barley.
• Sitting in the big red truck with Dave eating choke cherries waiting for the tank on the combine to fill.  At the right time I would run across the field, (bare feet over thistles) climb onto the combine and level the grain in the tank so dad could go a bit farther.  Then Dave would drive up behind in the big red truck and dad would pull the lever to empty.
• Standing on the seat of the M tractor waiting for dad to return from town so we could unload the combine.  As I waiting I put a hand full of wheat on the tractor seat and with my big toe carefully pushed the seeds, one by one, through the holes in the seat.  As I did this I practiced over and over and over my speech for Sunday night Luther League.  In a moment of excitement I promised Chuckie that I would give a speech on the power of prayer!!!  Little did I know that was when my life turned towards God.  Well it took a while to come about but that was the beginning. 
• Dave and I plowing until almost mid-night so dad would take us to the Minnesota State Fair.  We had to finish plowing before we could go.  Dave drove the M with its 3 bottom plow and I drove the Ford with its 2 bottom plow, which would make the Ford stop dead in its wheels when I hit a rock.  Many many bloody noses from that darn tractor and those big hidden rocks.
• Dave and I plowing rye east of the farm and burning some so the plows would not plug up all the time.  One time the fire jumped the plowing and we almost saw Bert's field to the north go up with our straw!  :(
• Riding the little bike up to the lake after a day in the field.  A half mile there on gravel road with no hands, then wash cloth and soap to the dirty body and then a half mile back on gravel road with no hands and even turn into the driveway and stop in front of the house--look mom no hands!
• Going to my first football practice a couple of days late.  I knew nobody, all the equipment had been issued and I was so lost and so shy and so embarrassed.
• My first football practice in August of my senior year.  I was the captain of the team and I remember taking the task so serious.  I looked at George, who was a freshman and weighed close to 400 pounds.  I thought if I can get this guy to even stand on the line in a game we will do well.  For that task I was not too successful.
• Sitting at the supper table and having mom serve those think slices of her homemade bread and then we could cover it with cream and smother it with fresh chokecherry syrup.  As some people today would say, OMG to die for.
• Looking towards the start of school in the fall when we were to get on the bus and go to Cayuga.  I knew that in the spring our little Wood Lake had 12 kids in the 8 grades.  What I did not know is that I would enter a 4th grade classroom with 24 kids.  I also had no idea that there would be some kids who did not know their math tables.  At Wood Lake in my time after I had finished my work I would practice those table so that I could finish a paper with 100 problems on it as fast as I could write. 
• I remember driving to Fargo to get somethings for school.  A lady asked my dad if I were an Indian child as I NEVER wore a shirt in the summer and I was as dark as could be.  I also remember a lady saying to me I must really sit in the sun a lot.  I should have said I will leave that until I retire!!
• I remember mom bringing lunch to us in the field.  She always brought dad coffee in a ball quart jar.
• Our water jug was a gallon jar wrapped with a gunny sack and then we would wet it down with water in the morning.  We would set it in a shady place and it would stay cool most of the day.

So August does bring many memories.  As I sit here this morning I realize again that in some ways those days were magical, in some ways they were sad but for sure in many many ways they formed the Carmen of today.  I am thankful for what God give me those years.